April 2020 Newsletter

Letter from Co-Directors

Our hearts go out to  all who have been suffering or have lost loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Like climate disasters, this pandemic is exposing and amplifying deep inequities in our society. Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people are dying at alarming rates  from COVID19. This trend parallels disproportionate exposure of these communities to air pollution from fossil fuels and shines a light on entrenched structural racism across the country. Measures to flatten the curve and decrease the spread of the coronavirus highlight even more inequities - washing hands becomes a challenge where there is not reliable access to clean running water.  Sheltering in place can be a dangerous prospect when home is not a safe place. Reported instances of domestic violence have increased during the pandemic in ways that echo spikes during climate disasters, leaving women especially vulnerable as they navigate the minefield of interpersonal and political violence against women. 

While conservative lawmakers use the pandemic as cover to stop enforcing air pollution and clean water laws, dismantle climate policies, ban access to abortion, shut down legislative processes, and ramp up voter disenfranchisement, women, and especially women of color, are weaving tapestries of mutual aid and care while demanding more of governments, institutions and leaders at all levels.  Under their leadership and vision, organizations and communities are forging a new consensus to enable massive collective action that shifts public investment toward a healthier, more secure, and socially just political economy and a stable climate.

This month, the Hive Fund will award nearly $3 million in 3-year, general support grants to 12 grantee partners doing this work. (Formal announcement of the grantees coming soon.) In collaboration with other funders we’re leaning deeply into what it means to support climate and gender justice organizations in more holistic ways that affirm culture, foster collaboration and collective action, and support healing justice while resourcing impactful campaigns to build power and win policy changes.

We’re grateful to be able to increase multi-year funding for organizations working on many intersecting crises—from climate to democracy to health. For many of these grantees, these grants are the first multi-year grants they’ve ever received.  Several have mentioned the psychological impact of secure funding, in addition to the decreased fundraising workload. Others have appreciated that the most effective “rapid response” funding they can receive is actually general support funding that allows them to be flexible.

These grantees, to be publicly announced in the coming weeks, prioritize climate solutions that center gender, racial, and economic equity, and are focused predominantly on work in Texas and Georgia--two states at the epicenter of linked democratic and climate crises.

Hive funding is designed to meet what looks to be a new normal of intensifying  political, climate, and health crises--but also new opportunity. We look forward to working in partnership with you as we support one another during this challenging time and collectively build a better future.

Buzz from the Hive 

Participatory Decision-Making Working Group 

 Thanks to the wisdom and expertise of a phenomenal Participatory Decision-Making Working Group (link to website bios), the Hive Fund established core values and related grant-making guidelines and grant practice to shape our first round of grants. Read more.

Naming Committee 

We are excited to announce our new name: The Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice! Our Naming Committee (Esther Calhoun in AL, Kate Sinding Daly and Anne Delaney in NY, Val Benavidez in TX, Monique Verdin in LA, Susan Frank in CA, Sarra Tekola in NM, Chandra Fairly in GA) worked with the creative women at Do Big Things through many rounds of input and feedback by  to come up with the name and the honeycomb/sunshine logo you see on this newsletter. Thank you to the committee and Do Big Things for their excellent work!

New Funding Partners 

We are thrilled to share that several new funders have partnered with the Hive Fund since our last newsletter in November.  The Wend Collective has contributed to the Hive Fund directly, while the WE LEAD Fund at Tides Foundation and Mertz Gilmore Foundation are partnering in aligned funding for spring 2020 grantees. Thank you for your support! 

Knowing we were working with partners like the Hive Fund helped our board feel more confident about streamlining our funding process so we could meet the moment. ~ Rachael Young, Mertz Gilmore Foundation

Hive Fund Advisory Board 

The Hive Fund Advisory Board met in Houston for a planning retreat in late February. For many of us it was our last big in-person meeting before physical distancing went into effect. We mapped out values-aligned work plans for the Fund’s organizational development, grant-making, and fundraising work over the next three years. We are grateful for the continued leadership and strategic guidance of our advisors and excited to embark on this next phase.

Coronavirus Rapid Response Funding Opportunities  

There are many ways that philanthropy is stepping up to meet this moment.   The Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights has established the COVID Crisis Fund for Feminist Activists to help deploy resources to activists on the frontlines of the outbreak, as well as provides rapid response grants of up to $8,000 to women and transgender human rights defenders on a range of issues, including climate justice.

The Southern Black Girls and Women Consortium is spreading #blackgirljoy with a video challenge that invites black girls between the ages of 12 and 25 to share a video highlighting how they are spreading positivity during this difficult time.  Each week awards of up to $250 will be announced. #Tellablackgirltotellablackgirl about the challenge. The organization is also providing up to $5,000 in rapid response funding for organizations serving black girls.  Find out more about both opportunities here.

Strategies for Social Change, a woman of color owned capacity building and leadership coaching practice working exclusively with social justice organizations, teamed up with the Hive Fund and the National Institute for Reproductive Health to offer the following no cost services: 

Virtual Coaching Circles for Executive Directors (EDs): 6 ED Coaching Circles (1.5 hours each) with two coach/facilitators, Elsa A. Ríos and Lisa Garrett, and our resident Healing Justice Practitioner, Faith Bynoe.  To learn more about who we are and our coaching circle approach, visit our Coaching page. TO JOIN a virtual ED coaching circle session, sign up here.  

Individual and Leadership Team Coaching Sessions: We are also offering individual ED and/or small leadership team coaching sessions (maximum of three persons for joint sessions) so that leaders have support, build resiliency and have a sounding board to think through strategies for navigating these uncertain times. We’ve set aside 50 coaching session slots so sign up soon! To request a coaching appointment, sign up here by April 21st. 

Renegade Moment of Beauty 

From Instagram dance parties to shared playlists, music is one of the threads that connect us to each other and a legacy of cultural practice in this moment. Our Advisory Board came together in February to deepen relationship, reflect on the work we’ve done and plan for the future. We asked advisory board members and staff to share a song that makes them feel powerful and most like themselves and collectively created this playlist. We hope it makes you smile, is an outlet for righteous rage or gets you up out of your chair dancing.